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A Culture of Genocide

In writing about the Shoah (Holocaust), I was forced to examine human behavior during the most appalling and perfidious genocide in history. How could apparently normal people become willing accomplices in the murder of their Jewish neighbors? What persuaded German citizens, and their allies (Einsatzgruppen), along with many other Europeans, to believe that all members of the Jewish religion should be destroyed? Why did they also accept as appropriate the euthenasia of homosexuals, Roma and the physically and mentally disabled? Why was it so easy to convince citizens that their healthy, friendly neighbors should be exterminated?

Anti-Semitism has deep roots in the world, especially in Europe, where Christianity promoted Jewish hatred for two thousand years. Millions of innocent Jewish men, women and children were murdered during the Crusades, the English Expulsion and the Spanish Inquisition. From the Dark Ages through the Reformation, the Church influenced Europe with a firm grip. Their isolation and denigration of Jews was a firmament of Church philosophy.

Requiring a scapegoat to distract rebellious societies, the Church found Jews a very appropriate target. It has always been easier to hate than to trust or learn to tolerate. Jews did not accept Jesus as the messiah. They worshipped God differently and with a different language. They kept to themselves. Jews often looked and acted differently. They observed different holidays. They held jobs deemed distasteful to Christians. The Church and local governments found it useful to maintain that Jews were not to be trusted or allowed to assimilate. Moreover, Jews were a peaceful group, without any military capability, unable to defend their communities from attack. In essence, Jews were a perfect scapegoat for Church leadership.

Over the centuries, European anti-Semitism became increasingly endemic. With frequent eruptions of pogroms and murder, it was never far from the surface. Rumor and innuendo captured the minds of Europeans. They came to believe that Jews were responsible for murdering Christ, bringing plague, butchering Christian children to use their blood for matzo, and all manner of insidious, mendacious motivations. Yet, not all anti-Jewish doctrine came from Rome. Luther pushed for the destruction of European Jewry as well. In Thirteenth Century England, the crown called for Jewish persecution and expulsion. The result was tens of thousands of murdered Jews. Fourteenth and Fifteenth Century Spain produced the Inquisition, which resulted in the murder of about a million innocent Jews.

Over successive centuries, the Church’s effort to expel and murder Jews gradually declined. But, the latent hatred and mistrust for Jews remained. Very few European nations gave Jews the same rights as Christians. Hitler’s endeavor to remove and annihilate European Jews required little vigor to impose. In fact, it was a useful distraction for the Nazi regime, to combat public anger from austerity programs and political challenges. The old mistrust and hatred of Jews easily rose to the surface, focused by incessant, vigorous propaganda. Very little effort was required to turn Twentieth Century Europe against their Jewish neighbors.

Meanwhile, Jews remained largely as they had been throughout time. They studied Torah, respected higher education, worked jobs that no one else desired, married and had children. Their values changed little over the centuries, despite near-constant efforts to isolate, expel, enslave and murder them. Jews often resisted assimilation, instead appreciating the importance of their time-honored values. Yet, Jews displayed no belligerence or hegemony. They desired no power over their neighbors. For Jews, the bitter taste of abhorrence, slavery and murder was a constant companion. Still, they desired only to live in peace with their European neighbors. But, this was interpreted by their enemies as weakness. Their ancestral homeland, Israel, was conquered repeatedly; their sacred temples destroyed. Throughout the succeeding Diaspora, Jews remained devoted to their religion and culture; they embraced it as they had for two thousand years, despite being second-rate citizens or no citizens at all. Jews threatened no one. Yet, they were despised by most Europeans.

Humans are complex beings. There is a great deal more to us than the ubiquitous battleground of good versus evil. We are not one or the other, but a combination of both. We are beautiful and ugly, soothing and terrifying, brutal and caring; we love and we despise. Despite centuries as victims, bearing the brunt of falsehood, deception and vicious brutality, Jews remained loyal to their God, Torah and culture. They continued to find joy in a life of obedience to their time-honored traditions. For Jews, life has never been good or bad, but good and bad. Throughout history, Jews have found few moments of peace within an eternity of harassment, slavery expulsion and murder.

Within the fetid trains and barracks of Nazi-occupied Europe, lovers dreamed of being together, rabbis tried to keep faith alive and parents anguished desperately over a lost spouse or child. Into this churning crucible of horror, lovers, parents, children and grandparents were deposited. Yet, their passion for Judaism did not disappear. Ironically, within a culture of death emerged a passion for Torah and life. Most Jews did not abandon their faith in God; instead, they carried it into the darkness of brutality, torture, sickness and death. Into the gas chambers of Nazi death camps, the Jews of Europe emptied their faith, love and tradition.

Meanwhile, the culture of Nazi Germany was abducted by the illusion of a horribly tarnished morality; one which approved of the extermination of Jews and euthanasia of the disabled and undesired. This was cold, calculated genetic manipulation, in order to produce a Europe that was Judenrien. Repugnance, despair and darkness exist within human nature; just as affection, compassion, tolerance and devotion also exist there. We learn nothing about ourselves if we do not examine these vastly disparate portions of our psyche.

Meanwhile, a complex palette of emotions churned within the minds of Shoah victims and their Nazi rulers. Some Jewish kapos were more terrifying and brutal than SS guards. A few SS guards and camp workers were gentle and compassionate. Powerful infatuation and tender love also existed during times of horror and despair. So did a deep commitment to faith and God. Nazi Germany could remove every article of wealth from the Jewish people, but not their love of family, adoration of Torah and devotion to a two thousand year-old culture. This is the cement that holds the Jewish people together. At the very end, naked and cold, Jews carried their tradition, values and faith into Nazi gas chambers; a tapestry of ancient wisdom, coupled with ritual devotion and deeply meaningful connection.

The world is seldom seen in black and white, or even shades of gray. During the Holocaust, in the midst of terrible anguish, beauty existed. That beauty was surrounded by despair. Lovers secretly met in fervent passion. Clandestine weddings were held. At some concentration camps, such as Theresienstadt, Jews created schools, clinics, orchestras, politics and literature. There were even some births, hidden from the SS for as long as possible. Here, deep within the trepidation of impending death, surrounded by sickness and brutality, we find Jewish love, compassion, creativity and deep faith in the God of their ancestors.

Holocaust survivors lost everything, but perhaps gained something as well. Certainly an honest examination of the Shoah must reveal torturous cruelty, violence, brutality, rampant sickness, forced labor and death. It's fair to say that Holocaust survivors lost most or all of their loved ones, their sacred objects, wealth and homes. However, despite the starvation, slavery, inhuman conditions, disease and malice, the incarcerated Jews of Europe continued to practice their religion and their traditions. Many never lost their belief in God. Keeping their faith and culture alive, their survival became a victory of Jews over Hitler. Today, the existence of their progeny cements this Jewish victory. Like a fabulous phoenix, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Shoah victims rise above the ashes of the Holocaust; a treasure of Jewish endurance. Here, one can feel hope for the survival of the human spirit.

Charles S. Weinblatt

Author, Jacob's Courage

http://jacobscourage.wordpress.com/